Kashmiri Rajma Curry

September 25, 2014

Healthy and nutritious Kashmiri rajma curry is the Kashmiri red kidney beans cooked in Kashmiri flavors to bring out the best combination ever!

I would call this Kashmiri rajma curry a special version of rajma masala which is made with Kashmiri kidney beans and lovely Indian spices. Kashmiri food has many hidden gems with this Kashmiri rajma curry being one such vegetarian delicacy. Kashmiri food is high on spices and flavor and uses minimal onion which is the major difference in Kashmiri food and other North Indian preparations. This Kashmiri rajma curry is also no exception!

I am already fond of regular rajma, but this time I bought the special ‘Kashmiri Rajma‘ to make something different than my usual Rajma Masala. Kashmiri kidney beans are a bit smaller in size than the regular version. This recipe is also quite lighter than my earlier spicy rajma curry but this Kashmiri rajma curry is full of immense flavors. I always love yogurt-based curries which emanates intense flavors of the spices without making them too overpowering.

Kidney beans or ‘Rajma’ as we call it in India is quite a popular stuff in Northern region of India; but my mum never made it during my childhood and I am not sure why. Kidney beans are quite a nutritious thing – it is a good source of dietary fibers, vitamin B1 and iron among many other nutritional benefits. And guess what! It tastes great too! Isn’t that awesome? Healthy food can be tasty too!

The dry kidney beans require a longer cooking time and additionally you need to soak them for considerable number of hours preferably overnight. I found a short-cut method which is very useful in case you forget to soak the beans last night and still you have made your mind to make nothing else other than the ecstatic Kashmiri rajma curry for tonight’s dinner! I suffer from this syndrome way too often and have no idea how to cure it!

So, in such case what you can do to quickly soften the hard beans is to pour boiling water on them and keep covered for half an hour. Then preferably pressure-cook them for 15 minutes or boil them till soft. But if you are in US, chances are that you are using canned beans which are already processed and cooked. Then you don’t have to worry about soaking beans etc.; you can straightway proceed to the recipe of Kashmiri rajma curry!

I so love this Kashmiri curry that I ensure to include it in our meal at least once a week. This Kashmiri rajma curry goes really well with rice which is our staple food. Hope you will like it too!